Authorities step up enforcement

Just hours after TV360 released the film “Mua do” (Red Rain) free of charge, hundreds of websites were found illegally redistributing it. Similarly, “Tho oi!!” (Bunnie!!) was secretly recorded and uploaded to pirated platforms only days after its theatrical debut.

The Cinema Department under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said more than 400 Vietnamese-language websites are unauthorisedly distributing tens of thousands of films. These platforms generate revenue through gambling advertisements, betting services, VIP subscriptions and premium viewing fees.

Sports broadcasting rights are also heavily targeted. Monitoring data from VSTV showed that during the early rounds of the 2025–2026 football season alone, more than 10,000 illegal streaming links were detected per match round, causing losses worth hundreds of billions of Vietnam dong.

According to Similarweb, Vietnam loses an estimated US$350 million annually to digital copyright infringement. Around 70 illegal football streaming websites attracted more than 1.5 billion visits during 2022–2023, while over 200 pirated movie sites recorded roughly 120 million views monthly, with about 15.5 million Vietnamese users regularly accessing infringing platforms.

In response, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has issued a plan to implement the Prime Minister's Official Dispatch No. 38/CD-TTg, dated May 5, 2026, on strengthening the enforcement of intellectual property law. The campaign focuses on violations involving software, films, music, television content and video games in the digital environment.

The dispatch also ordered a nationwide intensive crackdown during May 7–30, 2026, targeting copyright piracy, counterfeit goods and trademark violations.

The Ministry of Public Security has been tasked with dismantling high-traffic pirated movie, music and gaming websites, including English-language platforms, while investigating and prosecuting serious copyright infringement cases.

Tran Hoang, Director of the Copyright Office of Vietnam at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said authorities will strengthen coordination to detect and handle websites, apps and digital platforms illegally distributing films, music, television programmes, games and other creative content.

For serious or organised violations generating substantial illicit profits, enforcement will extend beyond administrative penalties to criminal investigations, financial tracking and legal prosecution.

The office is also promoting cooperation with digital platforms, intermediary service providers, advertisers and payment processors to curb both the spread of pirated content and the revenue streams sustaining piracy networks.

Experts lauded authorities’ decisive actions, recommending the application of rapid takedown mechanisms, and tougher sanctions.

Technology becomes critical weapon

According to experts, copyright protection in the digital era cannot rely solely on manual enforcement but requires integrated technologies such as content recognition systems, digital fingerprinting, rapid takedown tools, source tracing, advertising controls and financial monitoring.

A pirated website blocked under one domain can quickly reappear under another, while AI is increasingly being used to automatically copy, edit and redistribute infringing content.

Hoang said accelerating the application of technology to copyright management is now a key priority. Authorities need to deploy big data, online monitoring tools and AI-powered systems capable of detecting violations more quickly and accurately in real time.

He also stressed the importance of further refining Vietnam’s legal framework to address challenges related to AI, cross-border content, intermediary platform responsibilities and electronic evidence.

Nguyen Manh Quy, Director of the Institute of Copyright and Digital Assets, proposed using AI and big data for real-time automated scanning systems capable of detecting violations early and automatically issuing blocking requests to internet service providers.

Meanwhile, Mai Tu Anh, vice chairman and secretary general of the Vietnam Reproduction Rights Association, warned that AI is making copying, editing and distributing content nearly instantaneous while generating derivative works that increasingly blur ownership boundaries.

Cybersecurity expert Ngo Minh Hieu said tackling digital piracy at its roots requires tracing the entire ecosystem behind it, from advertising revenue and payment accounts to operation management groups, as copyright infringement has evolved into a highly profitable underground business model.

Experts agree that Vietnam can no longer combat digital piracy through manual methods alone. The long-term solution lies in combining AI-based content detection, digital fingerprinting for videos, music and images, alongside domain monitoring and big data analytics to identify and dismantle piracy networks more effectively.

Conference shares int'l experiences in music copyright protection

A two-day international conference on data processing and information technology in copyright protection commenced in Hanoi on February 26.